Players

A player instance (or player) is a web-based media player that enables Ooyala Flex
users and public internet users to view Ooyala Flex assets. When viewing an Ooyala
Flex asset through a player, a user will be able to play, stop, pause, and carry out
all of the other common features of modern web media players. Hence, players enable
Ooyala Flex users to make assets available publicly or privately for viewing on
platforms and devices outside the Ooyala Flex console.

Publishing, Un-Publishing and Re-Publishing Players

Note: Player publishing actions can only be applied to an asset once the
asset has first been published to Ooyala Flex Publish.

Asset publishing to Ooyala Flex Playout is managed by three related actions.

Publish Actions: You must use the publish action that is configured to publish
assets to Ooyala Flex Publish.

Un-Publish Actions: You must use the un-publish action that is configured to
un-publish assets from Ooyala Flex Publish.

Re-Publish Actions: You must use the re-publish action that is configured to
re-publish assets to Ooyala Flex Publish.

The Publish Player action references a player definition and supports associated undo
and redo action types. This means that when a user publishes a player, they can
optionally choose to un-publish and re-publish the player in the future. This can be
done through launching jobs from the asset toolbar. The Un-publish job is useful if
you wish to remove a player instance from the public domain. Re-Publish is useful if
users have updated the title, description, metadata or keyframes associated with an
asset and therefore wish to update the player instance properties.

The fact that publishing, un-publishing and re-publishing is carried out through the
execution of Ooyala Flex jobs offers users some significant benefits:

• Players can be published, un-published and re-published as part of a workflow.

• Players can be published manually as part of a Job and therefore publishing can be scheduled to occur in the future.

• A single asset can be published against more than one publish player action type
and therefore the same content can appear in different player definitions.

• If a player publish job fails, the the job can be retried or cancelled.

Player instances are created (published) when a publish player job is run against an
asset. When this happens, the Ooyala Flex job scheduler identifies the action
associated with the job and evaluates the player definition associated with the
action. It then makes the asset and player code available to the public by
publishing it to Ooyala Flex publish. A player instance can be deleted
(un-published) when an un-publish player job is run against a player.

Ooyala Flex publish is a publicly-facing portal service that allows remote platforms
to search for and query information about published assets and player instances.

You can see a list of all players that have been published for an asset by looking at
the Players tab in the Asset Details screen.

The Player Dashboard

The Player dashboard provides an overview of the status of your player instances.
This section provides an overview of the information available:

The Recent Player Activity

The Recent Player Activity provides a real-time update of all events occurring in
relation to player instances. Rolling over each entry provides a tool-tip pop-up
that provides further information on the event with links to the underlying player
instance.

Player Summary

This section shows a summary of the number of player instances that exist for each
player definition. For all numerical values that are greater than zero you can click
through to see the results in the search results view.

Shortcuts

This section shows all Shortcuts to player instances.

Saved Searches

This section shows all searches you have saved from the Player Instance search
section.

Player Search

This section explains how to search for player instances in the player section of
Ooyala Flex. In this section we focus on the elements of search that are specific to
player searches.

Player Options

The Player Options drop down shows fields relevant to searching for player object
types. The fields available are:

• Player Definition: This feature allows for searching for player instances
by player definitions that have been defined in Ooyala Flex.

• Asset ID: This feature allows for searching for player instances that
belong to an asset with a particular asset ID.

• Asset Title: This feature allows for searching for player instances that
belong to assets with a particular asset title.

Search Results

Executing a search in the player instance search section will return zero or more
results. Users can view the player instance details using the List view. Users can
also toggle bulk actions to display the toolbar and enable actions to be carried out
against one or more player instances. Clicking on an item in the player search
results will take the user to that player details screen.

Player Details

The Player Details screen displays information about an individual player instance.
The tabs and relevant fields are described below.

From the Player Details screen, you can use the tab navigation to browse. Below we
will introduce the Player-specific tabs.

Summary Tab

Content Preview

A preview of the Player and its related Embed code, can be viewed in the Summary tab.

Embed Code

The embed code is used to embed the player instance inside an HTML page.

Asset Title

The asset title provides the title of the asset that is associated with this player
instance. By selecting the asset title hyperlink, you will be taken to the Asset
Details screen for this asset.

Status

The Status fields provides the currents status of this player instance.

Config Tab

This screen shows all the configuration that is related to a particular player
publish action.

The configuration information can only be edited if the job is in a failed or timed
out state.

An example is shown below:

Creating a New Player Definition

1) On the toolbar, click the New option.

2) From the drop down, select Player Definition.

3) In the Create new Player definition section, fill in the relevant details
such as name, visibility, and plugin.

4) Once you've created your player definition, click the Extended
Configuration tab in order to define the values that you wish to assign to
your new resource.

The Configuration sub-tab contains the following configuration options:

• Player Instance Configuration: These options allow you to change how the player instance looks and how it behaves. You can choose whether the video starts playing automatically, whether the controls are enabled, whether it plays on a loop, whether you can view it in full screen view, and so on.

• Preferred Size: These options enable you to change the height and the
width of the player.

Embed File: This .vm file can be used to generate an embed code. Thus allowing you to embed your player in any HTML File.

Player File: This .vm file takes all the configuration and adds this configuration to your asset player.

Note: If you want to further customise your players, you will need to add in supporting files in the Supporting Files field. These support files can be anything. For example if you wanted to change the styling for your player, you could add a .css support file. You can have as many support files as you wish.

• Player Option: This field is for adding plugins that need certain
endpoints. Examples include: analytics and comment plugins.

Publishing a Player Instance

The following steps will walk you through the process of publishing a player instance
for an existing asset in Ooyala Flex.

In this scenario, the process is initiated from the asset toolbar in the Asset
Details section for an asset. It could equally be started from the Bulk
Actions toolbar available in the asset search results screen, or the asset
basket.

Note: The asset must be published before you can publish the
player.

1) Create a player definition.

2) Click the Configuration tab, and enter the configuration details for your player definition.

3) Navigate to your chosen asset.

4) Click the Publish Player button.

5) In the Create Publish Player Jobs dialog box, select the player
definition that you created from the drop down.

6) At the bottom of the window, click the Run Now button.

7) When the progress bar reaches 100% the publish has completed. Simply click Done to finish.

8) Navigate back to the asset, and click on the Players sub-tab. Here you will be able to select the player and view a preview of it.

Un-Publishing a Player Instance

In this scenario, the process is initiated from the Asset toolbar in the Asset
Details section for an Asset. It could equally be started from the Bulk Actions
toolbar available in the Asset Search Results screen, or the asset basket.

1) In the Player Details section for the player instance, click on the
Un-Publish Player action in the Asset Toolbar.

2) The Create Un-publish Player Jobs pop-up appears. Select the Player
Un-publish action to use and fill in scheduling and configuration
options.

3) Click Run Now, and the job is run.

Re-Publishing a Player Instance

In this scenario, the process is initiated from the Asset toolbar in the Asset
Details section for an asset. it could equally be started from the Bulk Actions
toolbar available in the Asset Search Results screen, or the asset basket.

1) In the Asset Details section, click on the Re-Publish Player action
in the Asset Toolbar .